Nurturing Momentum

As I started college I was told by friends and family that great things would begin to happen. I was ready to embrace the new experience. I left for Indiana in August during allergy season with a cast on my right arm. I sneezed and sweated through the first few weeks of classes and those classes were harder than expected. It was a terrible start. I lacked momentum as my college career began.

As I start 2014 there are plenty of encouraging messages being blasted out from all media sources telling me to be positive and embrace the new year. But I don’t want to fall for that again. Simply claiming momentum won’t make it so. Getting through the holidays takes a lot of energy. The end of this stressful time typically brings some welcome rest. And now somehow I am supposed to launch energetically into a new year. As Newton’s first law of physics points out, an object at rest will stay at rest unless an outside force acts upon it! Business and life demand our energy. It helps to be passionate but it can not be forced. You can not force momentum….but you can nurture it.

As 2014 begins I plan to nurture the momentum that I need to propel myself forward. There are three key elements to this plan. They have worked for me before so I expect good results.

Open up to new things – Take one day at a time and watch for opportunities to create momentum. Trying new things can reveal new abilities and interests. As the new year begins there will be chances to engage in physical and mental activities that will take you out of your comfort zone. Surprise yourself.

Learn constantly – Don’t think that graduation from formal education is the end. There are so many new things to learn. Read, watch, listen. Get your creative juices flowing.

Try, Try again – Failure is not a problem. Not trying is the problem. If January starts out slowly or if there are stumbles as you begin, February is not far behind. Pick up and start again.

My college start was not smooth but I did nurture my own momentum to send me successfully through a great college experience. I did it by applying these same ideas. I took risk and signed up for things I had not done before. I got involved in student government, a sorority and several academic societies. I never lived in my home town again. Instead, I chose to take a summer job in Michigan working for GM. I embraced physics which was my first academic challenge. Eventually it became my favorite class. I didn’t give up in the face of disappointment. I didn’t always get the grade or the job or the boy or the position I went for at the time, but I continued to go for what I wanted and was propelled forward to a broader future than I could ever have imagined.

In 2014 I resolve to keep an open mind to what is around the corner. While I don’t feel the momentum yet, I am certain that I will be swept up in it as the year gets going. And I will do my best to nurture that momentum myself. Join me!

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.” – Dale Carnegie

Responses

Great article, Marcy! It comes at a good time for me, as I’m struggling to accept never being able to work full-time again. My only child is off at college and being challenged (and being a challenge…) more than I expected. I am finding new things to do to stay useful and active, but it’s a very different world than I expected I’d be in just now. Thanks for the helpful thinking on the subject of momentum and continuing to move forward.

Hi, Marcy, I am delighted to have found your blog. I love your three keys for nurturing momentum. I believe you put #1 in place when you read my blog, and hopefully #2 as well. It is wonderful to find you after so many years! I smiled when I read about your allergies at school, because I remembered something similar from when we were children. Perhaps your new environment has you allergy free. I’ll be back to read more!

Marcy Alstott is an Operations and Supply Chain Executive with diverse product and technology expertise, multinational management credentials and extensive transformation know-how. She is a P&L savvy leader with the tenacity, creativity and desire to build alliances internally and externally to define and achieve common goals. She is known as a driver of strategic mission-critical business objectives, gaining buy-in at all levels. Marcy currently is a principal consultant and founder at OpsTrak Consulting. Formerly, she was a Vice President at Hewlett Packard, where she led the LaserJet Printer Operations team. She has over 25 years of high tech operations and engineering experience.